If you’re planning on buying and installing a whole house humidifier in your home, then this guide on how to add a humidifier to your furnace is definitely worth a read!
Having your entire house be humidified is something that many people can appreciate. After all, there are many proven benefits to having a certain amount of humidity in your house. After a while, though, you might get a bit tired of having humidifiers in just about every other room of your house.
They can get in the way and take up more space than you are willing to give. With that being said, however, there is a way that you can create a whole-house humidifier that doesn’t take up space and keeps your home properly humidified.
As the name might suggest, a whole-house humidifier is one that is designed to humidify the entire house rather than just a room or two. There are two different ways to go about installing a whole-house humidifier that you will want to keep an eye on.
You can choose to have a team of professionals handle the job for you or you can get the job done yourself. If you are worried about messing up, then having a professional do the job might be the right choice for you. On the other hand, if you are worried about costs, doing the job yourself might be a better idea for you and your situation.
How To Add A Humidifier To Your Furnace
Choosing Between Installing It Yourself and Hiring a Professional
There are pros and cons to both getting the job done yourself and hiring a professional. Hiring a professional is vastly more expensive since you are paying for the service to be done for you, of course. Typically, the costs of hiring a professional will range from about $400 to about $700 with lower-end installations being cheaper and closer to about $200 to $300 and higher-end ones being more expensive and closer to about $800 to $1000.
On the other hand, installing it yourself will be much cheaper. The only problem is that it opens up the realm of error much more than a professional would and the repair process can easily cost more than the whole installation. This will be something to think about. However, if you are determined to install the humidifier yourself, then there will be a few things to keep in mind.
Preparing for the Installation Process
Before you can install anything and attach it to your furnace, you will need to get the materials ready. You will need to choose a system to attach to the furnace so that your home can be humidified. You will also need to think about the mount components as well, which will help support the new humidifier when you are attaching it to the furnace.
You will also need to get materials to connect the plumbing and the electrical components together as well. If you want to be extra careful about things, it might be worth it for you to do a bit of research on your specific furnace model and find humidifiers that are easy to connect.
A lot of these areas will require a lot of research and thinking about how exactly you want your humidifier to be powered and if the power type will merge well with how your furnace is powered.
Planning Around Your Furnace
The type of furnace that you have will also make a huge difference in which type of humidifier you should have installed as well. After all, part of how this system works is that the humidifier is connected to the duct work of the furnace. Certain furnaces will perform better or worse with humidifiers.
Thankfully, many typical traditional furnaces will work well with most evaporative humidifiers so for the most part, you will not need to think about this all that often. You can spend your focus thinking about which professional company will do the best job of installing your humidifier while also offering you the best price on the matter.
For electric furnaces, you won’t have to worry about anything either. Many people agree that electric furnaces will go well with just about any and every type of humidifier out there. In fact, there are also some people who believe that electric furnaces and humidifiers can enhance each other’s performance in the home as electric units use a considerable amount of energy while most humidifiers can also make the home feel warmer than it is, meaning that you might be able to save a decent amount of money with this kind of setup.
If you have a heat pump, there’s a good chance that you are not having problems with humidity in your home. Generally, if you are having moisture problems and your home is heated by a heat pump, there is usually something within the heat pump that you can adjust to keep moisture levels suitable. However, if you are still not satisfied with this, then you should aim for steam humidifiers and powered ones so that your home can be as comfortable as possible.
Factoring in Other Costs
Unfortunately, adding a humidifier to your home is going to come with a fair few extra costs that you might want to prepare for. Luckily, most of these costs don’t add up to more than $100 each but when they all stack up, it can be a considerable amount of money that you could potentially lose.
If you want to be specific about exactly how humid your house is, you might want to invest in more humidity gauges so that you can keep things at exactly the level they need to be. A humidity gauge can range from $10 to $60 with the quality and durability lasting in relation to the cost.
For example, a $10 gauge is not going to last nearly as long as a $40 one. Similarly, you could opt for a humidistat, which essentially combines the functions of a thermostat with a humidity gauge and allows you to alter the humidity levels of your house to whatever your needs are at the time. These range from $30 to $100.
The location of the humidifier and HVAC system will also play a role in the price of the overall installation. Most professionals are going to charge a little bit more money for more complex and difficult jobs. If you know that your furnace is located in a difficult area of your house, you might want to prepare for the extra cost that the hassle of trying to install a humidifier might add. While there is no standard for how much a complex installation will cost, it’s likely that the professionals you are working with will be more than happy to talk to you about quotes and discuss how much more it would be.
And, finally, you need to think about upkeep. After all, the humidifier is another appliance in your house that needs to be kept in good condition unless you want to pay for even more repair costs down the line. Maintenance is something that should be done regularly; for the most part, it involves checking for mold and mildew since humidifiers are a prime place for them to grow.
Doing regular maintenance and just checking to see if there is any mold can save you a lot of money. Additionally, you will want to have your ducts cleaned out a bit more often since the humidity in that area will be increased. You can expect maintenance to add about $70 to $100 more to the yearly cost of appliance upkeep in your house.
But, when all is said and done, having a whole-house humidifier will be well worth the time spent researching the best way on how to add a humidifier to your furnace.
